Afternoon with an Archeologist
by James Church
Summary: Jack and Annie, now teenagers, go back to Europe in 1939 to find a magic ring. They meet up with a helpful archeologist/adventurer.  Usual disclaimer-I own no rights to any characters
1. Chapter 1

AFTERNOON WITH AN ARCHEOLOGIST

CHAPTER ONE

Jack and Annie had not gone on a Magic Treehouse adventure for many years. In fact, Jack was now nineteen years old and at college. His younger sister Annie was eighteen and still in high school. For a long time, neither had seen the Treehouse or even heard anything from Merlin, Morgan Le Fay, or the two young enchanters Teddy and Kathleen. Sometimes Jack even wondered if it has all been a dream and never really happened.

One warm summer early morning, Jack was home from college and was sleeping in his old room. It was about five-thirty and the sun was just creeping up on the horizon. Suddenly, he was awoken and found Annie standing over him, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Jack, wake up," she said insistently.

Reaching for his glasses on the nightstand, he turned to her and said "What? What is it?"

"The Treehouse, " she exclaimed, "It's back!"

"The Treehouse?" he asked shocked. "Really?"

"Yes," Annie said again, "It's out there in the wood. I just know it."

Annie ran out of the room and got dressed in her bedroom. Jack put on his clothes, and reached into his closet and pulled out his old backpack. He had to take a moment to widen the straps as they were still as long as they were when he was a boy. Finally getting it on, he joined Annie as they both crept out of their parent's house and made their way down to the Frog Creek woods.

As they neared the old oak tree, Jack and Annie saw the Treehouse perched on a tall limb, just as it had been when they were kids. The rope-ladder still swung from it. Neither appeared any older than they both remembered them. They climbed up and crawled inside. Being teenagers, the Treehouse was a bit more cramped than it had been before.

"Look, Jack!" Annie called, pointing at a silver envelope laying on the floor. On the front in bold flourished handwriting it said "To Jack and Annie". They both recognized it as Merlin's handwriting. Jack quickly tore open the envelope and read it aloud.

_Dear Jack and Annie,_

_ I know it has been a long time, in your world, since I last sent you on an adventure, but I need your help desperately. A magical ring, called the 'Ring of Guinevere', is needed to save Camelot and our magical world. Your adventurous and noble spirit will help you find it in a dark time in the history of Europe. Here is a rhyme to help you in your quest-_

_**Stolen long ago, from Britain's noble shore,**_

_**Hidden by Norsemen, behind a rocky door,**_

_**But there are three traps you have to steer clear,**_

_**To obtain the Ring of Guinevere.**_

_**To defeat the first, a traveler goes,**_

_**On an antipodal walk in the dark shadows.**_

_**The second needs a swing from Nature's chalk,**_

_**From the mouth of the man who cannot talk.**_

_**To avoid the third, state the maker's name,**_

_**To tell which rings are not the same.**_

_Good Luck,_

_Merlin_

Jack and Annie stared at each other.

"What does that mean?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Annie replied, "I guess we'll find out when we get there."

"But where?" Jack asked, "Merlin says a 'dark time in the history of Europe'. Sounds like the Middle Ages."

"Look, Jack" Annie pointed to the bookshelf.

There were only two books on the Treehouse shelf. One was the book on Pennsylvania, which always brought them home. The other was a book wasn't a book at all. It was a magazine, called "LIFE". The date on it said "March 1939". One page was folded down inside. Opening it, they find an article on British ancient sites. There was a large photograph. It showed a small hill, with many tall, rectangular stones arranged in a circle on top of it. Jack and Annie both recognized it….Stonehenge. The ancient monument in England.

"Ready?" asked Annie.

Jack gulped. It had been a long time. "Uh, I guess so."

Annie pointed to the picture of Stonehenge and said aloud. "I wish we could go there!"

The wind started to blow. The Treehouse started to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still. Absolutely still.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

A NEW FRIEND

When Jack and Annie opened their eyes, they immediately noticed how much colder it was. This obviously wasn't summer-time, but late winter…winter in England. Jack was dressed in a wool shirt with khaki pants. He was also wearing thick camping boots and had on a brown felt hat and a leather jacket. His backpack had turned into burlap satchel, swung over his shoulder, hanging to his side. Annie was wearing a wool coat over a silk blouse, with khaki pants as well and the same type of shoes. She also had on a beret.

The two teenagers stared out the window of the Treehouse and saw a vast grassy plain before them. In the distance, Stonehenge could be seen on top of a hill. Jack grabbed the magazine and Merlin's letter and stuffed them into his satchel. They climbed down the rope-ladder and found themselves looking out on a cold, overcast afternoon. The Sun was already on the horizon and dusk was approaching. They bundled up their coats and began walking to the stone formation.

"I guess the ring must be hidden at Stonehenge, right?" Annie asked.

"I don't know, " said Jack, "Anything like that would have been discovered years earlier, I would think."

Jack and Annie started nearing the top of the hill, when they heard a noise. It sounded like a lot of pants and groans and when they reached a point where they could see, they saw a strange sight. There were four men fighting. Three of the men were in black suits, with black coats and even black caps. The fourth man seemed to be the target of the fight, as the other three men in black would rush him and he would fling them away.

The fourth man was dressed in a khaki pants and boots. He had a burlap satchel as well, but also had a pistol holster, and a loop of what looked like twisted leather rope hanging from his waist. The man had on a worn, brown leather jacket and a brown hat, with a band running around the inside rim. Jack and he were nearly identically dressed. His face was tanned and he apparently hadn't shaved in a day or two.

He punched one man in black and then another grabbed him from behind. The third man in black tried to rush him but the man in the brown hat kicked up his legs and knocked him back against one of the large, upright stones. Jack and Annie were now within ten feet of the fight.

"Jack, help him!" Annie yelled. The three men fighting didn't notice her yelling, while the other man in black against the stone looked around for the voice.

Jack stood up and ran over to the man in black holding onto the brown hat man. He grabbed his arms and pushed him into another stone. As the man in black who had been punched was getting to his feet, the brown hat man, now freed, kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious. The one Jack had jumped now turned and even though he was surprised, he attempted to hit Jack with his fist. Jack jumped back and the swing went wild, but the brown hat man caught the fist in his hand and then punched the man in black to unconsciousness. The third man now alone, turned to the brown hat man and yelled in a deep accent, "This is no over, Signore Doctore!" and ran off into the growing darkness.

The brown hat man looked down at the two unconscious men and then over to Jack. Annie came out of hiding and stood with him.

"Thanks, kid. I owe you one," he said in an American accent, "Who _are_ you? And what are you two doing out here, this time of night?"

Annie spoke up. "I'm Annie and this is my brother Jack."

"Americans too, huh?" the man said, rubbing his sore chin, "My good luck you showed up when you did."

"Who were those men?" Jack asked.

"Enrico Spinolli and his goons," the man said, "Italian mercenary. He was trying to get this." He pulled out a small silver necklace from his satchel. Jack and Annie stared at it. "It's an artifact that dates back to the early Celts who controlled England before the Roman Empire. It is said to have belonged to Boudica, a Celtic queen. It was buried in a barrow, that's an ancient grave, just south of here." As he spoke, he reminded Jack of a professor he had at college.

Jack and Annie looked at each other. She spoke first though.

"We're looking for an ancient artifact, too, " she began, "Maybe you can help us."

The man nodded. "Sure, kid."

"First," Jack interrupted, "Who are you, sir?" The man smiled, putting out his hand.

"Indiana Jones. I'm an archeologist." Jack and Annie each shook the hand in turn.

"What are you looking for?" Jones asked.

"The Ring of Guinevere," Annie answered. Jones laughed out loud. Annie felt embarrassed. He stopped quickly seeing her face and began to explain.

"I'm sorry, Annie," he said sympathetically, "It's just….King Arthur and Camelot are myths. They aren't _real_ history. They're stories, mostly made up by French minstrels and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Comic book stuff."

Jack's lip stiffened. He felt like the man was making fun of him and Annie. "Mr. Jones! We have some first-hand evidence that it IS real," he said in a rather stern tone he had never taken with an adult before.

"Okay, okay," Jones began, "Take it easy, kid. Let's get out of here and back to London and I'll tell you what I know and you tell me what you know. If there's something to it, I'll help you find the ring. Deal?" He smiled. Relieved and less angry, Jack and Annie smiled back.

They headed down the hill, in the opposite direction from the Treehouse, to a tan car parked on the side of the road. Jack and Annie and Indiana Jones got in and the older man began driving west towards London.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

RAIDERS OF THE LOST RING

It took several hours to drive back to London. Indiana Jones told them how he had discovered an ancient manuscript in Rome, which had led him to the ancient grave-site where the necklace had been found. But that Spinolli and his men had been after him since leaving Italy. After retrieving the necklace, Jones was going to hide it at Stonehenge until he could summon the local police for help, but the Italians had caught up with him before he could hide it.

"What are you going to do with it, Dr. Jones?" Annie asked.

"Call me Indy," he said firstly, "I'm taking it to the British Museum. My friend John Forsdyke is the Director there. That's where we're heading." The car entered into the outskirts of the British capital.

"What do you know about the Ring of Guinevere, uh, Indy?" Jack asked. Jones smiled as he drove, but tried to be serious about something he obviously thought was a myth.

"Well, I'll tell you what little I know" he began slowly, "The story is that a Viking raider named Magnus the Red-hands captured the ring some time in the 600s AD. And they returned to Scandinavia with it and hid it on an island."

"Which island?" Annie asked innocently.

Jones smiled at her and then turned back to look at the road. "Nobody knows. There are thousands of islands around Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Some of them claim to be the 'Ring Island'." He paused slightly as they turned past a large park onto a road called "Gower Street". "But about 1617," Jones continued, "A Danish explorer named Jens Munk claimed to have found the island, but not the ring."

"Did he say which island it was?" Jack asked hopefully.

"No, Jack," Indy answered, "We do know he was in Spitsbergen about that time, but nothing else."

"Where's that?" asked Annie.

"Large island north of Norway."

"So where do we go from here?" Jack asked, sadly.

Jones smiled. "In here."

They were now parked in front of a large, columned building, covering an entire city block. It was about midnight, so nobody was going in or out of the Museum and there were few people even walking the sidewalks. Jones and Jack and Annie got out of the car and walked across the small plaza and up the steps into the building. A security guard stopped them at the door, but soon a middle-aged man, with large ears in a business suit came to meet them. It was Mr. Forsdyke, the Museum Director, and he greeted Indiana Jones warmly.

"Indy!" he said smiling, "Good news, I hope?" Jones smiled back and slowly pulled the silver necklace out of his satchel and as Forsdyke opened his hands, he laid it in his friend's open palm.

"Good Lord, it's real…and it's beautiful," Forsdyke said marveling at the small necklace.

"And now, I need to ask a favor of you, John," Indiana stated.

"Anything."

"We need to look at a manuscript in the Scandinavian section."

"This late?" Forsdyke asked. Jones nodded. He shrugged and led Indiana, Jack, and Annie off to a wing of the building. They passed several shelves containing various old books. Some were bound in rough leather; others appeared to be rolls of parchment, strung together with bits of string or leather. Mr. Forsdyke left with a "Good luck."

Indiana Jones searched the shelves and found the book his was looking for. It was very old and opening it, Jack and Annie saw very old, brown-edged parchment paper made up the pages. The language was unfamiliar to them, but they guessed it was Danish, since Indy had said that Munk was from Denmark.

"Can you read Danish, Indy?" Annie asked.

"Yes, mostly," he answered. "This is Jens Munk's diary of his expedition to Spitsbergen. Mostly he's talking about whaling, which is why he went." He flipped a page. "Later on, he explored some of the other Arctic islands." He flipped another page. "But here's the part about discovering 'Magnus Red-hand's Cave'. Several of his men went into it, but never came out. They gave up and came home."

"And he doesn't tell where the island is?" Annie asked again.

"No" was the archeologist's response, "He said the cave was on an island. That they landed in a cove, south of a river and a glacier. Then, they hiked two hours east beside the glacier. Then something about 'the ring finger stands outside the cave.' But that tells us nothing."

Jack noticed something at the bottom of the page. It was a series of numbers. Ones and zeroes. They were in different sets and arrangements. "1001110" then "11001" then "0". Then it skipped a line and read "10101" then "11011" then "0". "I know this," Jack thought, but he couldn't place it.

"Well, that's it, kids," Indy began, "That's all there is to go on." He closed up the book and returned it to the shelf. And he sat down beside them at the table. Annie looked sad and dejected.

"Oh, man!" Jack suddenly shouted, startling Indiana Jones and his sister. "Binary!"

"What?" they both said together.

"Those are binary numbers," Jack explained, "I learned about them in Computer Science class. It's how they program numbers into a computer."

"What's a 'computer'?" Jones asked confused.

"Uh, that's not important, right now," Jack said, "Give me some paper and a pencil." Jones went over to a desk and found them for Jack and he began scribbling. "See, you use ones and zeroes to represent larger numbers. 1001110 would be…" He made some notes. "Seventy-eight!" Annie and Indiana Jones watched him for a minute, until finally he had the solution.

"78…25….0. And 21…27…0." Then he scratched his head. "But what does that mean?"

Jones snapped his fingers. "Latitude and longitude. Come with me!" And he got up and ran down the hallway. Jack and Annie followed him. They entered a room labeled "Map Room" and Indy quickly grabbed a large book off the shelf. The two teenagers joined him at his side. He opened up a page saying "Scandinavia" and started to run his finger across the page. "Seventy-eight degrees, twenty-five minutes, zero seconds." Then "Twenty-one degrees, twenty-seven minutes, zero seconds." Finally his finger landed on a spot north of Norway.

"Barents Island," he said triumphantly. "Makes sense. It's a small island east of Spitsbergen Island, where Munk was exploring."

"Look!" Annie said. She pointed to the small island. "It's due east of this larger island and there's a river on it and a cove just south of that."

"That's got to be it," Jack added.

Indiana Jones smiled. "Good work, guys. You'd make pretty good archeologists." Jack and Annie grinned.

"Now what?" Annie asked.

"Now?…we get some transportation," Jones answered

He led them out of the Map Room. Stopping for a moment to thank his friend the Museum Director, the three adventurers walked out of the Museum and headed down to Indy's car. They didn't notice a shadowy figure watching them from behind one of the columns of the building. And didn't notice when that figure hopped into his own car and followed them down the street.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

NORTH TO ADVENTURE

Two hours later, Indiana Jones and Jack and Annie took the train from London heading for Scotland. They slept onboard the train and woke early the next day to find themselves in Aberdeen, the eastern seaport city. Indy had secured a seaplane for them and a pilot. And before lunch, they were off to the northern coast of Norway and re-fueled in the town of Narvik. Then it was onward north to the island of Spitsbergen.

On the way over, Indy asked Jack and Annie what information they had about the hiding place of the Ring of Guinevere.

"We have a rhyme," Annie answered, having to talk loudly over the roar of the three engines.

"A rhyme?" Indy asked incredulous.

"Yes!" she continued, "It's a clue to how to get the Ring." She motioned to Jack, who pulled out Merlin's letter and gave it to her. She read it aloud again to Indiana Jones.

_**Stolen long ago, from Britain's noble shore,**_

_**Hidden by Norsemen, behind a rocky door,**_

_**But there are three traps you have to steer clear,**_

_**To obtain the Ring of Guinevere.**_

_**To defeat the first, a traveler goes,**_

_**On an antipodal walk in the dark shadows.**_

_**The second needs a swing from Nature's chalk,**_

_**From the mouth of the man who cannot talk.**_

_**To avoid the third, state the maker's name,**_

_**To tell which rings are not the same.**_

Jones looked perplexed. "What's 'antipodal' mean?" Annie asked.

Indy smiled slightly. "The Antipodes are an old term for the other side of the Earth," he said in his teacher-like voice, "You know, like Australia."

"Oh," Annie replied.

"And what's 'Nature's chalk'?" Jack asked.

"Chalk is just limestone, like you'd find in a cave" Indy answered, then he asked. "Mind if I see that letter?" Annie handed it over to him.

He read it and as he did Jack suddenly realized how it must sound to Indy, with it talking about "magic worlds" and "Merlin". He saw Indy reach the bottom of the letter and look up at them suspiciously. Jack thought quickly of a story.

"Our friend 'Merlin', uh, he's a fan of King Arthur stories," he began, "His real name is, uh, Neil Armstrong."

Indiana Jones nodded slowly, appearing to not truly believe the story. "Well, I guess if we find the cave, and there are booby-traps, these clues will help us get past them."

"Indy?" Annie asked, "What is it that the Ring of Guinevere is supposed to do?"

Jones smiled. "Well, the legend says that Arthur had Merlin make it for Guinevere specially, so that she could protect herself against kidnappers. A woman who wears the Ring can charm any man into doing whatever she wants."

"I know a few girls at college who already have that power," Jack said, laughing, and Indiana and Annie laughed too.

The plane flew on. As night approached, a few lights appeared on the horizon. An island came into view. Indiana Jones explained that it was the island of Spitsbergen and the small mining town was called Longyear City, named after an American mine owner who settled the town in the early 1900s. Now the town was all Norwegian coal miners and their familes, about 500 men, women, and children. It was and is the most northern town in the world.

Landing in the bay, Jones spoke with the pilot and told him that they were stay there for the night in the plane and then be off for Barents Island in the morning. He and Indy bought fuel for the plane and some local food. Jack and Annie were starving. On the plane all they had was some cold roast beef sandwiches the pilot had packed, but that was lunch and that was over six hours earlier.

Indiana Jones came back and handed them each a packet of fish sandwiches, wrapped in waxed paper. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either, but Jack and Annie dug in hungrily. After they ate, Indy went over the map of the islands he had gotten in Narvik. He and the pilot plotted where they would land in the large cove on the southwestern side of the island. Then they turned in. The pilot slept in the cockpit while Jack and Annie and Indiana Jones slept in the reclining seats in the passenger compartment.

"Do you have any children, Indy?" Annie asked as they lay there, listening to the water lap against the hull of the seaplane.

Jones across from her, laughed slightly. "No…not the fatherly type, really."

"Are you married?" Annie continued .

"No," he began slowly, "I was seeing somebody…for a few years, but we broke it off over a year ago. " He paused. "I broke it off."

"Well, maybe you could get back together," Annie said, and then yawned, "And have some kids?"

Indiana Jones pulled his fedora over his eyes and with a yawn himself, said, "I doubt it, kid!" And he went to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

THE QUEST FOR THE RING

The next morning, it was still dark outside when Indiana Jones woke up Jack and Annie. Winter this far north, the Sun didn't even peek above the horizon until nearly eleven o'clock, but they had to go early to catch what little daylight there was by the time they reached the island.

The pilot smoothly taxied the plane out of the long bay of Longyear City and took off. They flew almost due east, and within an hour, the coastline of Barents Island was visible. A huge glacier divided the island, starting back in the mountains and going all the way down to the sea, where it stopped at the water's edge.

The seaplane landed and slowly pulled up to the stony beach. The pilot stayed with it, as Indy and Jack and Annie packed their bags and started walking to the east, following the southern edge of the glacier. Its huge white, icy walls were as high as mountains and cold winds blew chunks of snow and ice off it. Jack and Annie had bundled up in sealskin coats purchased back in Scotland, but Indiana Jones merely zipped up his leather jacket and put on rawhide gloves, seeming to ignore the frigid temperatures.

They hiked for an hour, when the glacier gave way to sandy dirt and a sharp, spiky cliff-side. The ground became very steep and the three walked slower sliding occasionally on the angled hills. As they marched, a bump grew on the horizon. This got taller and taller until it was a tall column of rock, sitting slightly away from the cliff. Jack recognized it first.

"The finger!" he exclaimed. And they all realized what he was talking about. Jens Munk's diary and it talking about the "finger for the ring" being right outside the cave. It took them another thirty minutes to reach it and when they did, they turned and looked at the mountainside. There was no cave.

"Huh?" Jack said. Indiana Jones was stumped too. He looked around the side of the mountain in both directions and saw no opening. "Where's the cave?" Jack asked.

"Wait," Annie said, "Don't you remember Merlin's rhyme. It said 'behind a rocky door'?"

Indy moved back to the side of the cliff in front of the stone column. He felt around the outside of the rocky cliff, until his hand came to a small indention, filled with sand. A thin crack ran from the sides of the indention on both sides. He brushed the sand out and grabbed the rock where the hole was and pulled. It was stiff and Jack and Annie helped him by grabbing the rocky wall and pulling with him.

A door, six feet high and five feet wide, made of solid rock opened up. It swung away on ancient iron hinges. Jones turned and smiled at the brother and sister, who smiled back. Then he reached in his backpack and pulled out three oil lanterns and lit them. They proceeded into the tunnel.

Walking for just a few feet, the tunnel opened up into a large room, twenty feet on a side. Light came into the room from skylight tunnels cut into the rock ceiling. It made a chessboard pattern on the floor, with light and dark spots where the light from the ceiling shown or did not. Indy studied the floor carefully. "This is the first trap," he said.

"How do you know?" Jack asked.

"I know," Jones replied, "But how do we get across it? What's the trick?"

Annie looked down at the floor. It was covered in large tiles. The light from the ceiling hit almost perfectly on a tile and the next tile was in darkness. Indy took a nearby rock and threw it onto the floor. It landed in a spot where the light from the ceiling hit. As soon as it did, the floor tilted upward, along its center and dumped the rock into a vast cavern some fifty feet below. It then righted itself and returned to normal. For a moment, Jack and Annie and Indy saw three mummified men in rotting clothes lying at the bottom of the cavern. "Yikes!" said Jack. "Yeah," agreed Indy.

"_**To defeat the first, a traveler goes, On an antipodal walk in the dark shadows"**_ she said out loud to the two men.

Jack thought hard. "Antipodal? Indy said that mean the southern part of the world…like Australia." Then he had an idea. "Antipodal!" he exclaimed, "What animal lives in Australia!"

"Kangaroos!" Annie nearly yelled. And with that, she leaped out onto the chessboard floor across a lighted spot and onto a shadowed one. Indy and Jack gasped and Jones tried to reach out to stop her, but she then leaped again over a light spot onto a dark one. The two men looked at each other and Jack shrugged. "She does that," he said by way of explaining his sister's nature. Then, they followed her, leaping over light spots and landing on dark ones.

In a moment, they were through the room and into another tunnel leading downward.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

THE RING OF GUINEVERE

The tunnel ended at an underground canyon and onto a broad edge. Below that edge, it dropped down for a hundred feet or more. Ten feet across from them, they could see the other side and another tunnel. Dozens of stalactites hung from the ceiling. Indiana Jones pulled out his whip and snapped it up on one of the nearer ones and began to swing across the canyon. As he pulled on it, it broke. He began to lose his balance and Jack and Annie grabbed him on shoulders and pulled him back from the edge. He turned. "Thanks"

Annie thought again and then said, "_**The second needs a swing from Nature's chalk,**_

_**From the mouth of the man who cannot talk.**_"

Jack looked around at the stalactites. Almost all of them were limestone. He recognized it from a Geology class. Then he saw a particular formation. It looked like the side of a man's face. With a chin and open mouth. He grinned. "There!" he pointed.

Indy pulled out his whip again and lassoed the stone, right where the "mouth" was. He pulled on the whip firmly and it held. He then swung across the chasm and over to the other side. He threw the whip back and Jack and Annie each came across. Indy then tucked the handle of the whip against the rock wall.

In the next room…they saw the Ring. Actually, they saw a LOT of rings. A shelf of rock was lined with them, all shapes and sizes. Some gold, some silver, some what looked like a mix of both. Some with rubies, some with emeralds, some with diamonds; each of all shapes and patterns. Indiana Jones examined the rings more closely. He noticed how each was sitting on a small cylinder, the size of a pack of chewing gum. The cylinders seemed to go into the rock shelf.

He looked around the room and noticed thin wires running from the back of the rock shelf, up to the ceiling and connecting to a series of wooden beams. Above the beams, hundreds of tons of rocks were being held in place. He pointed to them to Jack and Annie. "Pick the wrong ring," he said, "And the whole room collapses in on you." They nodded.

Then Annie read the final line of the rhyme. "_**To avoid the third, state the maker's name, To tell which ring is not the same."**_

"The maker?" Jack asked.

Annie smiled. "The maker of the ring!" She turned towards the shelf lined with the rings. "Merlin!" she cried out. Suddenly one of the rings in the left-center glowed with an eerie pale-blue light. Annie reached out and picked it up from the cylinder it was on.

The ring was beautiful. It was a large blue sapphire, surrounded on one side by diamonds. Then smaller diamonds were encrusted along the ring itself. Annie held it in her palm and stared at it. Jack and Indy came over and looked at it appreciatively too. Jones nodded his head. "A ring fit for a queen, for sure," he said, "You keep it with you, Annie." She grinned and stuck the ring into her satchel.

The three explorers then exited the room, swung back across the canyon, and back into the "chessboard room." Negotiating it easily, they were soon back to the first tunnel and saw the outside light from the open cave door. Indiana Jones exited the tunnel first, ahead of Jack and Annie. As Jack watched him stepping out into the outdoors, he saw a hand with a pistol sweep down from the side of the mountainside and knock Indy out and to the ground.

"Indy!" Annie yelled and they both started to run forward.

A figure in black stepped before Jack and Annie at the cave entrance. Though the sun was behind him, they both recognized him immediately. It was the Italian man who had attacked Indy at Stonehenge…Spinolli. He was pointing a gun at them.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE MAGIC OF THE RING

"Come on, you two," Spinolli said in his thick accent, "Out of da cave!"

Jack and Annie raised their hands and walked out into the sunlight. Annie rushed to bend over Indy and see how he was, but Spinolli would have none of it. "Leave him be," he said in a gruff tone, "He no dead, but he will be if you no give me da ring!"

"How did you know about the Ring?" Jack asked.

Spinolli laughed. "I follow you and Jones to the Museum and listen in. The guard, he easily bribed, so he dinna tell nobody I wuz there. I hear you talking about the Ring de Guinevere'. Once you find out da island…I leave by my seaplane before you left London." He laughed again. "I been waiting here for you to come."

"Now! No more talk" he stated, pointing the gun out at Jack and Annie, "Give me da ring or I take it from you…as you Americans say, da hard way!"

Jack looked over at Annie and nodded nervously. Annie reached in her satchel and felt for the ring. She got it on the end of her index finger and pushed it on, against the side of the satchel.. "I hope this works,' she thought. She pulled out her hand.

Jack saw the ring and figured out what Annie was going to do. "Oh, brother" he thought.

Annie raised her ringed hand towards Spinolli.

He looked at it; the ring was glowing again, ever slightly. "Put down your gun," Annie ordered in a low calm voice. Spinolli nodded, a glazed look came over his eyes. He bent down to the ground and laid his pistol on it. Annie nearly laughed. She composed herself. "Back up," she ordered again. The Italian mercenary did as he was told. Jack's eyes were wide in amazement. Annie looked over at him and indicated the gun with her head. Jack shook himself and went over and got the gun and pointed it the man..

"Stand right there and don't move until I tell you to," Annie ordered Spinolli again. Then she went over to Indiana Jones. He was starting to come to, rubbing the back of his head. Annie helped him to his feet.

"What happened?" he asked groggedly.

His eyes focused and he saw Spinolli standing there, totally still, with Jack holding the gun on him. Indy looked around confused. While he was, Annie slipped the ring off her finger and put it back in her satchel. As soon as she did Spinolli seemed to snap out of his trance and looked around confused. Then he saw Jack with his own gun pointed at him and he slowly raised his hands.

"We, uh, got the drop on him," Jack explained.

Both Spinolli and Indiana were surprised by that explanation, the Italian more so. Indy took the gun from Jack with a "Good work, kid. I'll cover him now." Jack happily relinquished the gun to the older man. "Okay, Enrico," Indy began, "Let's go" and he motioned down the hillside.

The four people hiked back to the waiting seaplane. Indiana Jones tied up Spinolli and shoved him in the back of the passenger compartment. "We'll turn him over to the Norwegian police when we get back to Narvik", he said.

The flight back was uneventful. Spinolli was taken into custody by the police. It seems he had stolen fuel for his flight to Spitsbergen and was promptly taken off to jail. Jack and Annie and Indy continued on back to Scotland, where they said farewell to the pilot and then boarded the train back to London. On the way back, Jones talked to the teenagers about the Ring.

"Jack, Annie," he started, "You know that that is an important artifact. It belongs in a museum. Technically it belongs to the people of England; it's part of their history."

Jack disagreed. "No, Indy. It really doesn't. Remember what you said? You said the King Arthur and Camelot stories were just myths, not 'real history.' If this ring is put on display, then it'll prove the stories are not myths, but facts. Myths are important things, in some ways much more important than facts. It gives people something to strive for…something to dream about."

Jones pondered this for a moment, then said, "You're pretty smart for a kid." He smiled and Jack and Annie both smiled back. "So what _are_ you going to do with it?"

"It's going to go someplace where it's needed," Annie said, "I know you wouldn't believe us if we told you where…but trust us. It's important."

Jones nodded. "Whatever you say, Annie." Then he made a slight grin. "You're not using that ring on me right now, are you?"

Annie laughed. "No…just my normal magical charm."

Indy grinned bigger. "Well…THAT is pretty powerful in itself."

Arriving back in London, Indiana Jones drove Jack and Annie back out to the Salisbury Plain to Stonehenge, where he had first met them. Again, he was a bit confused as to why they wanted him to just leave them out there, but he didn't question it. As they stood near the large stone formation, they said their goodbyes.

Jack stuck out his hand and Indiana Jones shook it. "Thanks, Indy," Jack began, "Thanks for everything." Jones smiled. "I told you, Jack, you'd make a pretty good archeologist. If you decide you want to pursue it, look me up at Marshall College in Connecticut." Jack nodded, though he knew that Jones wouldn't be there in their time.

Annie hugged Jones. "Goodbye, Indy. Thank you for all your help." She kissed him on the cheek and then stepped back. Jones smiled again. "Anytime, kid."

Indy looked around. The plain was empty, no tourists or cars were in sight. "So, I'm just leaving you here?" he asked.

"We'll be all right," Jack answered. Jones shrugged and went back down to his car. He turned one last time and waved goodbye to the brother and sister. Then, he got in and drove off, back towards London.

Jack and Annie walked down the hill to the Magic Treehouse. They climbed the rope ladder and again, crawled inside the cramped room. Jack pulled out the Pennsylvania book and pointed the picture of the Frog Creek Woods.

The wind started to blow. The Treehouse started to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still…absolutely still.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

There And Back Again

Jack and Annie and the Treehouse were now back in the Frog Creek woods. They were in their own clothes and the warm summer day had just started. As they looked around the Treehouse, they saw Merlin, standing behind them.

"Merlin!" Annie cried and she rushed over and hugged the old man in the tall wizard's hat and robes. Jack embraced him too. Merlin smiled.

"You two have done excellent work," he said.

"We couldn't have done it without the help of our friend, Indy," Annie said. Jack nodded.

"Yes, " he added, "Quite an adventurer himself."

"Oh, yes, "Merlin agreed, "I've kept an eye on Doctor Henry Jones, Junior for some time. His exploits nearly rival you two." Jack and Annie laughed lightly. "Now, " Merlin began again, "What about the Ring?"

Annie had stuck it in Jack's backpack before they left 1939 England. Jack pulled it out and handed it to the wizard of Camelot. Merlin examined it. "Ah, yes, just as I remembered."

"Merlin?" Jack asked, "Why did you need that Ring?"

The old man sighed. "There has been a great disturbance in the magic around Camelot. I need to gather up all the old magical items that I left in your world."

"So there are more out there?" Annie asked.

Merlin nodded. "Oh, yes, and soon I may ask your help again to get them." He smiled lightly. "But not today. And not for some time. I expect Jack may be back for another summer recess from college before I do."

"We'll be ready," Jack said.

The three friends said their goodbyes and Jack and Annie crawled down the rope ladder. They had barely stepped away from the old oak tree, when the wind started to blow. In a flash, the Treehouse disappeared in a whirlwind and was gone.

They then made their way back home.

When Jack went back to college that Fall, he thought about changing his major to archeology. He was told to go to the Archeology Department head first. Climbing the stairs up to the third floor in the History Building, he stopped at an office door. He was struck with shock. It said:

"H. JONES, ARCHEOLOGY DEPARTMENT"

Jack opened the door slowly. An older man in a suit stood with his back to Jack, putting up books on to a bookshelf and sorting various artifacts on to other shelves. He wore brown Fedora hat. Over his chair was an old leather motorcycle jacket.

"Indy?" Jack asked still stunned.

The man turned around. It was not Indiana Jones, but he did have the same eyes. "Excuse me?" he said.

"Uh, I'm sorry," Jack stuttered, "I was looking for the Director of the Archeology Department."

The man smiled. "That'll be me." He set down his books and artifacts and walked over to shake Jack's hand.

"My name's Jack," Jack said, shaking hands, but still a bit off.

"Nice to meet you, Jack," the man said warmly, "My friends call me…Mutt."

THE END


End file.
